The reason why we're here -- more to come!

An N&W J-class blasts east out of Bristol, Va., in the 1950's -- photo by E.W. King Jr.

The Big Picture

This page is intended to spell out some of the thinking behind the HO Scale model railroad I'm planning. This will be my second real pike since my teen-age years in the '70s. I've worked on a few club layouts since then and attended countless layout tours, viewing many state-of-the art layouts.

The layout will represent part of the Norfolk & Western Railway's Bristol line, which runs from Walton, Va., just east of Radford, Va., to Bristol, Tenn.-Va. The Bristol depot sits literally about 100 or so feet from the Virginia-Tennessee border. The Bristol line also includes the famous Abingdon (not Abington, BTW) branch of "Virginia Creeper" fame. Two other less-famous branches were also on the line, The Saltville Branch and the North Carolina Branch.

Operational Niceties

I model the N&W in the late-steam era, generally 1956-57. This meant that N&W's big steam still ruled for the most part. The famed J-class 4-8-4's still moved the varnish, with help from the occasional K2a streamlined 4-8-2. Through freights were moved by Y6-class 2-8-8-2 Mallets. Given the tight curves and rolling profile of this single-track line, the big articulateds weren't overkill. Local freights were hauled by K1-class 4-8-2's and the famous Abingdon Branch mixeds numbers 202/201 were pulled by M-class 4-8-0's.

A true bridge line, all of the Bristol line passenger trains save the local were through trains off the Southern Railway, handled by the N&W between Bristol and Monroe, Va., near Lynchburg. The Southern's Knoxville Division time freights handled traffic west of Bristol that was brought into town from the east by N&W. The SRR's Appalachia Division also connected with the Bristol line. Locomotives from both SRR and N&W were serviced at the N&W engine terminal about a mile east of Bristol Union Depot.

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